Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-05
SENATOR STANFORD ON C0-0PERA-
TON AND ITS BENEFITS.

TON AND ITS BENEFITS.
The REcoRD-UNIoN prints this morning
an interview with Senator Leland Stan
ford upon cooperation, to which the care
full and studious attention of every reader
is invited. 1t will be found to be at once
a series of politico-economic propositions,
and series of demonstrations of the truth
regarding the relations of capital and la
Dor. If this plain and forcible exposition
of the benefits and possibilities of cooper
alton could be soberiy read and consid-
cred by every wage-winner, it would carry
conviction and result in the beginning of
benefeent revolution in the labor system
of the whole land.
The strong disposition to give in this
place something of the history Of cooper
alton and of experiments in profit-sharing,
and TO fortify Senator Stanfords clear
statements by citations of actual expert
ments, and enlarge upon the lines of the
thought of the interview, must be repressed
for the present.
But 1t is proper to say at this time that
there is no proposition advanced in the
interview that is not fortified invincibly by
the best thought and experience of the
age, and by experiments in both this
country and the old world. So far as CO.
operation in one phase is concerned-that
known as proft-sharing-there is in this
city in practical operation in large indus
trial establishment, system exemplifying
and giving emphasis to the remark of Gov
ernor Stanford, that the personal interest
of the worker in the product of his labor
conserves economy, quickens industry and
dignities personal character.
The Nelson manufacturing concern, in
st. Louis; The Wannemaker (Philadel-
phia) mercantile establishment; the Vein
stock d Lubin mercantile house, in Sacra-
mento; the Delaine industrial scheme, of
Paris; the Paris and Orleans Railway
Company; the Bon Marche Parisian)
dry goods house; the Delft (Holland) dis
tillery; the famous establishment of M.
Goodin, at Guise, France; the Hazards
Wooden Mills, of Rhode Island the
Pillsburg FIGURING Mills, of Minneapolis
the Psge Betting Company, of New Hamp-
shire; Allen q Co., and the Hoffman &
Billings Manufacturing Company, of Wis
consin, are all-proft-sharing concerns To
Just that extent they are cooperative, but
limitedly so. For, as Governor Stanford
clearly shows, labor is the creator of its
own wages and of the profit of the organ
izer and employer of labor. When, there
fore, that organizer to stimulate labor to
greater endeavor, shares with it a portion
of the margin above wages, it co-operates
with it in degree. But if labor, which
Is the author of both wages and margin
lntelligently unites, ii can share with it
self all the margin, and, as the Governor
adds, there is no undertaking so great that
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. labor may not
grapple with it by uniting the labor and
credit of the workers, and thus command
ing and producing the capital needed.
Cooperative distribution is becoming
broader and better understood question
every day. As it becomes clearer to the
Intelligence of the workers of the coun-
try, all the supposed autagonism between
capital and labor will disappear. As Gov
ernor Stanford points out, this antagonism
really exists only in ignorance-and, let
us add, in demagogy. Capital is at once
the benefactor and the dependent of labor.
In his speech upon his cooperative bill
in the Seneate, February 10th, Senator
Stanford said:
In large sense civilization itself rests and
advances ON the great principles of co-opera.
non The industries, the thoughts the great
ideas which produce vast and beneficial results.
hnd their iull development in association s
The Organization OF individuals for a common
purpose gives the strength, the capacity of the
ablesJ TO all the association.
The interview published this morning
will be found to be an elaboration of these
fundamental truths. While restraining
the inclination to add argument to argu-
ment upon this attractive theme, and
dwell upon some of the points made, it
may serve useful purpose in inviting to
closer reading of the interview, if the cen
trail thoughts are rapidly recited, which
are presented with such simplicity and
mastery ability, and testify so strongly to
the conviction of the truth that has fast
ened upon the Senator's mind.
Senator Stanford starts out with the
enuneiation of the fundamental truth that
capital is the product of labor, and is
stored up force; a fact that our civiliza-
ton, which is, as Learned so well put it.
the evolution of the sentiment of Justice
among men, is emphasizing with every
step we make towards the solution of the
so-aailed labor problem. DR.. Newcomb
has defined capital as wealth, from the en-
joyment of which the owners are abstain
ing in order to gain future profit But
the definition relates more to capital in re-
serve than to its genesis. The definition
adopted by Senator Stanford more nearly
accordS with Pelry's formulation, that cap
ital is products saved for further use in
production. Capital, therefore, is not an
original element; it finds its counterpart
in labor, which is an original element in
production. As capital is the effect of the
cause labor, there can be no real an
tagonism between them, declares Senator
Stanford, and all apparent animosity is de-
oeptive.
From this established premise he pro-
ceeds 10 show that invested capital is de:
pendent upon the product of the labor it
employs. The value Of things depends upon
their susceptibility OF becoming valuableby
the addition of labor When the stored up
free employs labor, it becomes its bene-
f'ctor. But it employs it to make profit
o ii, for profit represents the margin Of
llbor production beyond the wages paid.
Now, says the Senator, let labor associate
the efforts made to produce wages and